How To Have a Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Are you celebrating by giving flowers, cards, or candy to loved ones? Hi, I'm Rob West. Expressing your feelings on Valentine's Day is a great tradition, but it's only one day a year. Today I'll share things you should do all year round to ensure your Valentine's Day is a happy one. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Okay, this is a show about biblical money management, and that's always our focus. Today we'll look at it from the perspective of couples, primarily married couples, but I suppose some of this could apply to any relationship you have with others. Now, money is always cited as one of the top reasons marriages fail, so knowing how to handle money within that relationship is key to preventing finances from harming your marriage. Put another way, wise money management contributes a great deal to the health of a marriage, so there are four things you should always do, according to Faith and Finance contributor Art Rayner.

First is to always act with complete transparency about your finances. Secrecy destroys trust, an absolutely essential element in marriage. For example, if you open a credit card account without your spouse's knowledge, you're destroying trust and potentially putting your marriage at risk. That secret account also becomes a temptation to run up debt, which just compounds the problem when your spouse inevitably finds out. You might call that financial infidelity.

The solution is simple. Never do anything in secrecy. Strive for open and honest communication about money as you would in any area of your marriage. Unless both spouses know everything that's going on with your finances, you can't work together to solve problems and achieve your goals. The next way to have a happy and healthy marriage is to have a financial plan. If you haven't already done so, sit down with your spouse and put together a plan for managing money to achieve your goals. But just having a plan isn't enough. You have to stick to it. If you deviate from it without your spouse's knowledge and approval, it'll cause problems in your marriage.

That relates back to transparency. Sticking to your agreed-upon financial plan shows respect for your spouse. That special person you vowed to share everything with will feel more connected with you when you always act to preserve the financial health of your marriage. Make sure any departure from your financial plan has the full knowledge and approval of your spouse.

It's okay to make changes. Everyone has to occasionally, but keep it above board. The third way to ensure a happy marriage is to always put your spouse first, not your parents. Parents are, of course, a great source of wisdom and advice, but there's a limit.

Taking the counsel of your parents about money or anything else above that of your spouse will begin to crack the foundation of your marriage. This may be more common than you think, so it's no surprise that the Bible addresses the potential problem head-on. Genesis 2 24 reads, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And, of course, wives should hold fast to their husbands as well. Now, the last way to keep your marriage happy may be even more difficult, and that's putting your spouse above even your children. You both love your kids, and maybe you think you would do anything for them, but don't. It's a tough one to swallow, but your first commitment is always to your spouse. Don't put your kids' wants over the counsel of your spouse.

It's more important to keep your marriage healthy and strong. Also, in many cases, continuing to help your adult children when they make bad financial decisions means they're more likely to keep making them. They won't become financially independent. They won't learn to save and spend money wisely. They won't learn that to get something, you have to earn it. The earlier you train your children to manage money wisely, the faster they'll learn, and it eliminates a potential huge conflict down the road with your spouse. God's word addresses this too. Proverbs 22 6 tells us, train up a child in the way he should go. When he is old, he will not depart from it. Remember that you're helping your kids by saying no at times when they tend to repeat the same mistake again and again.

So those are four ways you can maintain a happy marriage and ensure that your Valentine's Day will always be happy as well. By the way, we always encourage you to have a monthly money date, a time for you to communicate and make course corrections, not finger point as it relates to your money decisions. Perhaps you can add that this year moving forward.

I think it'll make a huge difference. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you. All right, let's begin today in Illinois.

Hi, Lee. Thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate this. I was listening to you earlier and I do have two questions.

The first one is kind of quick. I tried different budgets and I can't stray off of them and I can't seem to stay on any of them. I know you mentioned a couple of apps on the radio that I might be able to try and it seems like maybe I might be able to stay on that much better. Could you repeat those again? Maybe you said they might be able to maybe guide me.

I'd be happy to, Lee. Let me ask you, what's been tripping you up in the past? Where does it seem to kind of go off the rails, if you will? It's procrastination, I think. You know, I start on it really well and then I go to the grocery store and then I see, oh, this and that and then, oh, I need this and then I don't go back to my budget and say, you know, I overspent here and then I don't compensate, you know, if I overspent on one place, I don't, you know, cut back on the other and then, you know, the one percent that I'm supposed to put over here, I borrow from Paul to pay Peter, you know, and it just doesn't work.

Sharon, a couple of thoughts on that. I think the key for you is, yes, you need a good system that's going to work for you and it's got to fit with your personality, the way God has wired you. So some of us tend to be more hands-off and directional, just wanting to know that things are headed in the right direction. Others want to be more hands-on and detailed and you've got to find a system that works for you in order to pull that off. But I think even before that, Lee, what's also important is that you understand the why behind the budgeting process. It's not just about restricting yourself, which is never fun, but it's about understanding the bigger win down the road that you're ultimately solving for. And so if you start with this idea that I want to look at my values and what's important to me and how God is directing me in the future and I want to be able to save for a time where I could redirect my time and energy toward service to the Lord in a different way, and that means I need to have a retirement fund in place and I want to be able to put one of my kids through college or I want to be able to give more away.

I mean, whatever it is that God is leading you to, you want to define that in advance and that needs to be connected to your deeply held values and priorities. Because if you're ever going to be successful at sacrificing in the short term, you need to know why. There's a principle that says the longer term the perspective, the better the financial decision you're going to make today. And so in order for you to have that long-term perspective and know what you're ultimately trying to accomplish down the road, that's going to be key for you being able to say, you know what, I want this item that I see right in front of me, but guess what, there's not any more left in the, I'll call it the envelope, for that particular category and so I'm done for the month. I'm not going to buy it because if I do, that's going to take away from my ability to have a surplus at the end of the month, which is going to really be key to funding my longer-term goals that are really connected to my values. So I think you've got to start at that level or else you'll never be successful because you're going to play this game in your head of, well, it's not really a big deal, you know, what's another $50 and you make the purchase and now you've overdrawn in that envelope, so to speak, and you've just eroded your margin, your ability to save for the future.

So I think you've got to start there prayerfully and with a goal-setting process. Then once you establish that budget that balances, and remember it can't total more than 100 percent, if you're spending 110 percent of your take-home pay, you're going into debt. And if even you're spending 100 percent of your take-home pay without having any margin or surplus, you're never going to be able to accomplish your long-term objectives. Your lifestyle spending is really the primary determination on whether or not you will be able to save for the long term. And so you've got to rein in spending. That's where the budget comes in because we look at, okay, what can we actually live on for those fixed expenses that we get a bill for and those discretionary expenses that we don't get a bill for but we spend every month?

And what things can I eliminate? Because if I can eliminate some of them, then that'll give me the ability, you know, to have something left over which I can save then for the future. Now, once you're happy with that budget, the budget balances, you're living within 100 percent, you've got some left over to fund your long-term goals, now it's just an exercise of finding the right control system, if you will, to manage it on a monthly basis. And the challenge with most budgets is we create it maybe on paper and an Excel spreadsheet and we don't realize we've gone over it until we get to the end of the month and look back and say, wow, I didn't do so hot. And that's where Larry Burkett's envelope system is so effective. Larry used to encourage folks to fund physical envelopes where they'd literally cash a portion of their paycheck and fund envelopes marked, you know, eating out and clothing and entertainment.

And when the money was gone from the envelope, well, they stopped spending. We took that same idea and put it into a smartphone app that's in your pocket all the time to help you do exactly the same thing through a modern, simple digital envelope system. And it's called the Faithfi app, Faith-F-I, and you'll find it on our website, faithfi.com.

Just click on app and you'll read all about it and you can download it there. Here's what I'd like to do though, Lee, I want to use this as an experiment and see if our team can walk alongside you and help you get this set up and make it work for you because if I can help you get there and teach you how to use it and my team can, you know, walk alongside you to do that, then it's simple enough that it will just kind of work for you in the background. And as long as you're willing to commit to it, to, you know, use it moving forward, I think you'll find that perhaps you can budget in a way you never have been able to before.

But give me your thoughts on that. How does that sound? Oh, that sounds great. I think that that's what I'm looking for, something that I can, you know, I nowadays I have the phone, everybody's got their phone with them all the time. So I think if I have my phone and, you know, I don't have my envelopes with me. Yes, that's right. So if I have my phone, it's kind of like having my envelopes with me. Yeah. And I can look and say, oh, I don't have, you know, I don't have that.

Yes. That and that much in that envelope. So I can't spend that much.

Exactly. And you'll be able to see at any point during the month what's left in each envelope. Now, we're not actually moving the money. The money is still in your checking or your savings account or both. But in the app, you take those balances and you actually allocate them into each envelope. And then as your transactions come in from your credit card or your checking account or whatever bank or financial accounts you connect, it'll automatically get categorized in the appropriate envelope and reduce the balance. So you can see exactly what you have left and then you know when to stop spending. And then when you get another paycheck, it builds it back up again and you move forward from there.

So I think this is going to be exactly what you're looking for. So you hold the line, we'll get your information and get that right out to you. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Stay with us. You know, we started today by talking about how we can handle money in marriage.

That's right. It's Valentine's Day. Well, this area of money doesn't have to be an area where there's conflict.

I know the stats. Seventy percent of married couples have conflict over money, but we can get past that. And I think we have to start by recognizing that we bring different backgrounds, different personalities, different temperaments to the marriage relationship in all areas of our marriage. But that includes our financial life. You know, how money was handled growing up in a large way really informs how you're going to handle money today. If it was plentiful, you may hold it with an open fist. If it was scarce, you may have a tight clenched fist over it. Perhaps give some thought to how your handling of money today reflects your upbringing. But after we talk through that and think through it, now we come into the marriage relationship and two become one.

And you remember what Howie Hendrix said. He said, God didn't give you a spouse to frustrate you, but to complete you. And so as we approach this, we say, OK, what can we do in this area of money to move forward together? Well, that's where the goal setting process, starting with our values and our priorities, and then ultimately resulting in a budget, a spending plan that's the instrument of peace that perhaps drives us toward what God is calling us to as a family, but with a place in the budget for each of us to kind of have our own hobbies and interests reflected. But where we're working off of the same plan, not trying to control each other, but to move forward together as a married couple toward God's preferred future for us, what he's leading us toward. And the budget, then that instrument of peace really is the roadmap to help us get there.

So perhaps if money has been a source of conflict, maybe take a step back, pause, pray, ask God to work in your marriage, and then come together, start communicating monthly over a money date where you make course corrections, begin the goal setting process, and maybe take a fresh look at your budget and see if that doesn't help make some difference here as you move forward together. All right, let's head to the phones. 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you. To Fort Myers, we go, Hey, Jim, thanks for calling, sir. Go ahead. Hey, thank you. Hey, I had been putting in Roth IRAs for the last several years.

And anyway, I guess I found out that I had to reclassify a couple of them because I was making it over the exceeded, I exceeded the limit that you can make. And anyway, I didn't know if I should be going with like the regular IRA, but I've already been taxed on the money that I'd be putting in there. And then I'll be taxed again on the backside. So I didn't know if is that a is that a good? Is that a good investment there? Or should I be looking to other places?

Yeah, well, I like that. I mean, that certainly would be one option because there are clearly income requirements with the what were the Roth IRA for 2023. It's 153,000 for a single filer.

It's 228,000 for married filing jointly. There is another approach, Jim, that you could ask your CPA about. It's called a backdoor Roth IRA. Are you familiar with that term? I am not. Okay.

Yeah. So essentially, what happens is, is the strategy for high income earners who exceed the Roth IRA income limits, where basically you can you contribute the money to a traditional IRA, and then you convert it to the Roth IRA. And in doing so, you go ahead and pay the tax on it. This is not a tax dodge.

This is a very legitimate strategy that's out there. The way that you're able to do it, though, is that the same income limits for the Roth do not apply to the traditional IRA. But when you convert it to a Roth and pay the tax on it at the time of conversion, they don't apply the income limits there either. So you can essentially go into the Roth through the back door. And it's a legal way to get around the income limits that usually prevent high income earners from owning Roth IRAs in the first place. So that would be a way that you could go about getting that money in there. And you can talk to your CPA about it just to make sure that it applies to you and that you understand exactly how it works. So I have to establish the regular IRA first, and then I can convert that IRA?

That's exactly right. So you would make that contribution to the traditional IRA through a tax deferred contribution. So you'd get the deduction. And then when you convert your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, you pay the taxes on your contributions and the capital gains. And then you put that money into the Roth and through that conversion process. And then from that point forward, it grows tax free because you've already paid the tax. And so it can be a great way to get that money in for tax free growth over time. All right, that sounds great.

I will speak to my my tax person about that. Okay, that sounds great. Hey, thanks for calling, Jim. God bless you, my friend to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Hey, Clarence, thanks for calling.

Go ahead. Hey, I had a question about the I bond because I was looking to get a 1099 or something. And even when I go into my account, I don't see where any interest is accruing on the I bond.

So how does that work? Yeah, well, basically, you will typically not see that until you redeem it. So from it from a tax standpoint, you actually don't, you know, pay the tax on it until you take it out. Now, you can see it twice a year, they add the interest earned for the previous six months to the value and that gives it a new value. But in terms of paying taxes on it, you typically would not recognize that until you redeem the money. So how would I see that? Would I just go into my account and there would be or would do I get some kind of notification from them that I'm approaching my six months or how does that work?

Yeah, when you go into treasurydirect.gov, you would see that credited after a six-month period of time. Okay, okay. All right, very good. Thank you. Okay, thanks for calling, Clarence. We appreciate it.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. You know, folks, as we think about managing God's money, God's way, the big idea that jumps off the page in Scripture is contentment. We're to live content within God's provision. That means not using debt and living beyond our means, but it also means not getting caught up in the comparison trap, which is a contentment killer. And I think so often what we need to do is pray and ask God to maybe check our hearts.

If we've bought into the world's message of materialism and greed and fear, we need to renew our minds with a biblical worldview of money. We'll help you do that here on this program each day. And by the way, if you have a question or a comment, maybe a testimony to share, give us a call. 800-525-7000.

We'll be right back. Delighted to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host. We've got a few lines open today for your questions. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. That's 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you. All right, let's head back to the phone. Chicago, Illinois. Hey Michael, thanks for calling, sir.

How can I help? Hey, thanks so much for taking my call. Just a quick question for y'all. Do y'all recommend using a credit card over a debit card when you're traveling overseas?

Is that better? You know, typically it is. I mean, Visa and MasterCard are most widely accepted throughout the world. Obviously, you can have a Visa or a MasterCard on either a credit card or a debit card. One of the benefits of the credit card is often you can get a better exchange rate than you'll get from, you know, an ATM machine or a currency stand. So depending on your card issuer, you might also qualify for certain insurance as well that would offer some protection to you while you're traveling. So, you know, for me, I would always use a credit card personally over a debit card. You also have the issue where if it's lost, now of course if you know it, you could quickly shut it down, but it's a lot more hassle if your account is compromised using a debit card because now you've got to wait for that money to be replenished as opposed to a credit card that was compromised where you'd simply, you know, just protest the transactions and, you know, you wouldn't have to pay them, but you haven't lost any money that's been, you know, depleted from your account. So I think all things being equal, my preference would be a credit card, but you want to know what you're getting into prior to heading overseas. So I think it's always good to call the credit card company, first of all, to let them know that you'll be traveling because that would be an automatic flag when it's charged overseas.

If they don't know you're there, they can note your account, but secondly, just to make sure you understand the exchange rates and, you know, whether or not there's any protection or insurance that's going to be offered to you because if you've got it, you want to know about it so you can take advantage of it if something happens. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. Thank you so much. All right, you're very welcome. Where are you headed, Michael? I am actually headed to South Bend, Indiana. I work in Chicago and I jump on the Amtrak and have an hour and 45-minute ride, and then my wife picks me up in Niles, Michigan.

Okay, cool. Now, where are you going overseas, though? Well, one day my wife and I would like to travel to the Philippines to see her family or travel to the UK to see her brother. Okay, well, I'll take it.

I'd like to travel to either of those places, so glad to hear you're planning ahead. It sounds like you're a planner, Michael. Listen, you take care of your wife today on Valentine's Day and call us back again sometime. God bless you, my friend.

Let's stay in Chicago. Cesar, how can we help you, sir? Hi, good afternoon. I just had a question. I recently was laid off from my employer of nine years, and I'm kind of in like a 45-day period where I'm still getting paid my regular salary through my pay periods, but after the 45 days, if I don't decide to either go back to the company or if work gets back to normality, they can call me back and everything will be the same. They are offering me a severance.

I don't know what the amount is. I just know that it's, I guess, two pay periods per every year, so it's roughly about 18 pay periods that I'd be receiving. So my question was, you know, if I decide, because honestly I kind of want to get out of the industry that I'm in, I'm in the mortgage industry, if I decide to take the severance package, which would help me, I do have some reserves for at least three months of paying my mortgage and staying afloat. However, if I do decide to take that severance, what are those tax implications looking like? Yeah, severance is not taxed any differently than income, Cesar, so basically whatever severance is paid to you during that calendar year would be added to your taxable income from the year and for the year and then you'd pay taxes just as you would as if you received it through your normal W-2 income.

So there's really not any special considerations. There's not any higher tax bracket. The only issue would be is if you received a lump sum payment of severance and that lump sum payment pushed a portion of it into a higher tax bracket because you're receiving more than you normally would over a, you know, a normal calendar year, then you could factor that in. But in terms of severance, just think of it as additional income and you'll pay tax accordingly. Gotcha, yeah. So I mean, it is, it is, it is going to be a lump sum after that time frame. I just, I guess at that point I have to decide, well, yeah, I have to decide whether, you know, well, I'll know if it's going to push me over or not in the tax bracket. So I appreciate that part. And then I had, I guess, one more question.

I'm sorry, I didn't talk earlier. In the event, let's say I do also have a 401k that I don't, right now, I don't plan on, you know, take, withdrawing any money from there. But in the event and the necessity that I needed, because as I mentioned, I don't want to go back into this industry.

I kind of want to do something different or if not something on my own, you know, kind of just to build something for my family and for, you know, them moving forward. In the event that I have to go into my 401k, I was just, you know, looking up online, is that currently still at a 22% that I'd be taxed that for that whatever amount I go through? Yeah, in terms of a withdrawal from your 401k?

Yes. Well, again, it's just going to be treated as income. So whatever amount you take out of the 401k, if you're 59 and a half, you're going to have a 10% penalty. And then on top of that, any amount you withdraw would be added to your taxable income for the year. So it'd just be subject to normal tax brackets. So for instance, if you make, are you married filing as a single person or jointly? No, I'm married filing jointly. Okay, so the 22% bracket is between 89,500 and 190,750. So if you're anywhere between 89 and 190,000, you know, you're going to be at a 22% marginal tax rate. Gotcha, gotcha.

Okay. And that's between my income and my wife's income? That's exactly right.

Yeah, the total income if you're married filing jointly from all sources, including you and your spouse and any other income that you have coming in. So a lot to think about here, César. I would make this a matter of prayer as you just ask the Lord to give you some direction moving forward on where he's taking you, but some exciting times ahead for you. And I hope that's been helpful to you. Thanks for your call.

800-525-7000. We've got three lines open. We're going to take a quick break here. Before we do, you know, earlier in the program, we were talking about the FaithFi app. And if you're struggling to stay on budget, if you're thinking about how you can control the flow of money in and out of your household, head to our website and download the FaithFi app. Check it out.

There's three different styles of budgeting built in so you can pick the one that fits best with your personality. When you head to faithfi.com, just click the app button. Let me also mention, here's we're at the midway point through the month. You know, FaithFi is listener supported. We bring you this program each day as a direct result of your financial faithfulness and partnership. And if you've benefited from this program, maybe you count yourself a part of the faith and finance family, and you're regularly listening to the broadcast, and you'd like to contribute to the ministry, we'd certainly invite you to do that and be grateful for anything you might do, whether you're a one-time giver or a monthly partner.

You can do that online quickly and easily. Again, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com.

Just click the give button. We'd certainly be grateful for anything you can do to partner with us. Our amazing team wakes up every day thinking about how we can help you be a good steward of the resources God has entrusted to you. That means this broadcast team that brings you this program and everybody else at FaithFi.

Thanks in advance. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and back with much more after this. Stay with us. God owns it all, therefore we're stewards or managers of the King of Kings resources. That's a pretty high calling that you and I have. Let's do that wisely as we look to his word for principles that we can apply to our financial decisions. Hi, I'm Rob West.

This is Faith and Finance Live. Before we head back to the phones, well Bob Dahl is stopping by today. He wasn't available on the program yesterday and so we always appreciate his insights and deliberations. Bob, great to have you with us.

Thank you, sir. Hey, before we get into the markets and the economy, you know well it's Valentine's Day. Now, you get a pass because Leslie's traveling abroad today, but I want you, and I'm springing this on you here, I didn't prep you for this, but for all those listening, what have you and Leslie learned about handling God's money together as a couple? What's one big idea that's allowed you all to be successful as a married couple in that area? We've learned we need to communicate, pray about it, and be flexible. We're two independent minds and we have differing opinions, so we have to listen to one another so we can come to good answers before we have a duke it out session. Well done, yeah.

No, I love that, and marry up, which you and I both did, right? That's one of the keys. Very good. All right, Bob, let's dive into the markets.

Boy, your Dahl's deliberations are all chock full of insights. This week was no exception. What are some of the headlines you're watching? Well, I think it's, yeah, we got a long-awaited inflation number this morning, Rob, and it was a little hotter, a little more inflation than expected, and that, you know, I thought would have caused more consternation in the market. The market was mixed today, but I think inflation continues to come down, but at a slower pace than a lot of people are thinking and hoping. The Fed is not done.

Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, that's certainly something to continue to watch. Corporate earnings continue to roll in. Any new surprises there?

Not really. It's the same as we've seen really since January 1. Companies come through and they're, you know, not quite up to expectations, and so the analysts have to take the numbers down. They're not awful earnings, Rob, but estimates continue to come down because they're too high, because companies are struggling with cost increases.

Yeah, there's no doubt about that. Bob, obviously the macro environment, I guess you could say over the last several weeks, has been improving, although today, as you said, a hotter than expected inflation report, but would all of that continue to point to a mild recession and perhaps even skirting by a recession altogether? So that is the question. The bulls following the market higher are saying, well, maybe the Fed's almost done. Inflation is coming down. Maybe we can get through this without a recession, but I come back to these things are hard to predict, but we have some lead indicators for recessions that sadly are pointing to recession. Inverted yield curve, negative money growth, the purchasing manager indexes all below 60. Now to add to that list, we have investors' retail sentiment very bullish, as bullish as we were at the peak of the market last year. So I think we have some hurdles before we can blindly say, no, we're going to get through this without a recession. Yeah. Bob, on the international front, obviously been a lot of talk about weather balloons in China lately, but underestimating the risks associated with a deepening cold war between the U.S. and China is not something we should take lightly, huh?

Here, here. We know that China and the U.S. are not getting along as we all might like. We're the number one and number two powers in the world, militarily, technologically, economically. And so you hope our two countries can find some peaceful ways of settling issues where we disagree and lean on each other where we possibly can. I may be dreaming when I say that it seems to be getting worse rather than better. Keep your eye on this space, not to mention the other players, Russia, Iran, Korea. It's not it's not a safe world out there at the moment.

Yeah, no doubt about that. All right, Bob, my friend, grateful for your insights, as always, and look forward to having you back again next week. God bless. All right. That's Bob Doll, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments.

You can learn more and sign up for his Dolls Deliberations, his weekly investment commentary at crossmarkglobal.com. All right, back to the phones here in our remaining moments of the broadcast today to Wesley Chapel, Florida. Hi, Maria. Thanks for calling. Go ahead. Yes. Hi.

How are you? And God bless you all. Thank you.

I do have a question. I am retired right now for almost four years, and I have a pension plan that I haven't touched yet. So I've been thinking about moving the money to a regular IRA.

Yeah. So my question was, is there any way I can do that if there is any consequences? There wouldn't be any consequences to moving that into an IRA because that's not a taxable event. You would be moving from a tax-deferred environment in your pension over to a tax-deferred environment in the IRA. You wouldn't even have to receive the check. Once you open that new IRA and complete the rollover paperwork with your pension provider, they would just send the money directly to the back office of the new custodian, which would be deposited into your account.

You would just want to determine who you would want to use as that custodian and how you're going to manage it moving forward. You haven't had to think about that inside the pension, but once that money hits the IRA, somebody's going to have to give oversight to the unlimited investment options that you have inside the individual retirement account. What is the value of the pension, Maria? Do you know roughly? Yeah, it's about $48,000. Okay. Yeah. So it's probably a little below having an investment advisor.

They would typically need to have maybe a hundred thousand or more. And so our friends at soundmindinvesting.org could help you. Are you comfortable using the internet? Yes, I am.

Okay. Again, it's soundmindinvesting.org and they can help you get an account set up with one of the discount brokerage firms like Fidelity or Schwab and pick some high quality mutual funds that are called balanced funds that have a mix of stocks and bonds. And you'd basically depending on your age and your goals and your risk tolerance, how much risk you're willing to take for the expected return you'd like to receive on the investments that will determine the allocation of the investments. And you'll spread that money out through mutual funds over lots of different investments. So you're not highly concentrated.

You don't have all your eggs in one basket as God's word encourages us to do. And at that point, you just let this money grow for the future. If you don't need to pull any out as income, then you could just, you know, let it continue to rise.

It'd be a great way to outpace inflation. Apart from that, you could choose more conservative investments. If you wanted to, you could put it in CDs or banking products that are guaranteed, you're going to get a lower rate of return, but you wouldn't have the potential for principal loss. But regardless of the investments you choose, the actual process of moving from the pension to the IRA is not a taxable event. Okay, now my other question is, let's say if I wanted to pull some of the money after I move the money to a regular IRA, that would have a tax consequence, correct?

It would, yeah. So it would be added to your taxable income for the year that you make the withdrawal or the distribution. So whatever amount you take out would just be added to your taxable income when you file your return for that year. Okay, and the last question is, if I'm retired and I'm in Social Security, is that, I mean Social Security, we count it against me as an income. All right, what is your age?

66. Okay, once you reach full retirement age, Maria, you can earn as much as you want and that will have no impact on your Social Security. It's only going to reduce your benefit temporarily because you ultimately will get it back, but it would reduce your income temporarily if you earn over the limit, but that's prior to full retirement age.

Once you reach full retirement age, which is either 66 or 67 for you, then you can pull as much income as you want and that won't have any bearing on your Social Security. Awesome, thank you so much. Okay.

You answered all my questions. Great. You have a great evening. Thank you. God bless you, Maria. Thanks for calling today. To Indianapolis, hey Mandy, go right ahead. Hi there, thank you for taking my call.

I've got a couple things going on. First of all, I have a student loan debt of $53,000. It's got a fixed rate of four and a half percent. I've been deferring it since 2011 and I don't know if I should refinance it or not. And then in addition to that, my husband and I have about $1,200 a month in bills. And then we also have about $4,000 of credit card and hospital debt.

And we're trying to help out my dad because my mom passed away last year. But what do we do? Yeah. I'm at a complete loss.

Sure. Well, Mandy, let me just encourage you. You know, often financial management, money management can seem overwhelming because we've got all these simultaneous priorities going on and we have to know how do we move forward and make progress. And, you know, first of all, the starting point is for you all to be on the same page as husband and wife, recognizing God owns it all.

And you need to be a faithful steward of what he's entrusted to you. And I realize regardless of the decisions you've made in the past, the question is where are we at today? And so you've got to get an accurate understanding of where you're at in both your spending, that is your budget, the income you have coming into your household after all the taxes are withheld and the insurance and anything else that's coming out of your paycheck, your take home pay. How is that being allocated? What is your budget and where can you make cuts? You know, there's your needs, but then there's your wants. And a lot of those wants can be eliminated to free up margin because that surplus or that margin every month is going to be the key to paying those debts back. And so I think you need to start by getting that budget dialed in, eliminating as many expenses as you can, and then let's go after that hospital debt first, get that paid off, and then you can start tacking the student loans.

But it's got to begin with prayer and you and your husband being on the same page and then getting that budget dialed in and balanced. Hey, thanks for your call today. God bless you. Steven, we'd love to take your call tomorrow. Give us a call then. Thanks to my team today, Gabby T, Dan, Amy, and Jim. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.